The invention described herein was made in the performance of official duties by an employee of the Department of the Navy and may be manufactured, used, licensed by or for the Government for any governmental purpose without payment of any royalties thereon.
The invention relates generally to the sterilization of a fuze, and more particularly to a method and system for implementing fuze sterilization using a sacrificial anodic component.
When a munition is deployed, a fuze is used to detonate the munition reliably. However, since fuzes are not reliable 100% of the time, it is possible to have a number of undetonated munitions littering a battle zone. Such undetonated munitions pose a safety hazard to both advancing friendly forces and to.civilians who later reside in or pass through the area. Accordingly, the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have regulations specifying safety criteria for all munition fuzes. For example, the DoD uses Military Standard 1316 which requires all fuzes to provide a sterilization feature, the primary function of which is to disable the fuze so that it can no longer detonate the munition after a specified amount of time. Timing and reliability requirements for fuze sterilization are determined by system safety issues and mission requirements.
Undetonated underwater munitions (e.g., underwater mines) are of great concern for several reasons. Since underwater munitions are designed to be deployed in the water, they are inherently invisible to friendly and/or civilian ship traffic. Further, underwater munitions are frequently scattered in an area of anticipated enemy activity and are designed to detonate when such activity is detected. However, if some of the underwater munitions are not in a position to be detonated by the enemy activity, they remain as a safety hazard in the presence of subsequent activity by friendly forces or civilians. Still further, the harsh seawater environment could disable the underwater fuze sterilization system thereby allowing the munition to remain live for long periods of time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of fuze sterilization for a munition.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of fuze sterilization that is reliable in harsh underwater environments.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious hereinafter in the specification and drawings.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of fuze sterilization is provided for a fuze that includes a first component and a second component with a prescribed relationship being defined therebetween. The prescribed relationship is one that is required for proper detonation operation of the fuze. The first component is fabricated from a first material and the second component is fabricated from a second material where the first and second materials have different galvanic potentials, i.e., one of the materials is anodic relative to the other material in the presence of an electrolyte. An electrolyte is introduced between the first and second components. As a result, one of the first and second components undergoes galvanic corrosion. The galvanic corrosion continues for a period of time until the prescribed relationship between the first and second components changes sufficiently to disable the detonation operation of the fuze.